Books Nova Scotia

Books from Nova Scotia launched at Mòd 14/10/14

Two new books from Canadian authors have been launched at the Mòd in Inverness.

Cape Breton and Nova Scotia have close ties with the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, in no small part due to thousands of Gaelic-speaking migrant Scots and their traditions.

Bolstering its list of Celtic- and Gaelic-centred titles, new offerings from Cape Breton University Press, of Sydney, Nova Scotia, have direct connection with those Highland roots.

Reeling Roosters and Dancing Ducks: Celtic Mouth Music, by Celtic scholar Dr. Heather Sparling, brings together years of research, observations on both sides of the Atlantic and analyses of melodies and lyrics.

Rudan Mì-bheanailteach is an Cothroman / Intangible Possibilities is a collection of new Gaelic poetry by Nova Scotian Gaelic poet Lodaidh MacFhionghain /Lewis MacKinnon.

Mr MacKinnon is the current holder of the Scottish Bardic Crown, official bard (poet laureate) of the Royal National Mòd. He is the first poet to the appointment from outside of Scotland and his three-year term will culminate at the forthcoming Mod in Inverness.

He is is also executive director of the Nova Scotia Office of Gaelic Affairs.

Rudan Mì-bheanailteach is an Cothroman is his second full-length collection of original poetry. His first, Famhair / Giant and Other Gaelic Poems was published by CBU Press in 2008, during the Mòd in Falkirk.

In Reeling Roosters & Dancing Ducks, Heather Sparling brings together years of research into puirt-a-beul - the Scottish Gaelic term for mouth music - including an array of historical references, interviews with Gaelic singers in both Scotland and Nova Scotia, observations of puirt-a-beul performances on both sides of the Atlantic as well as on recordings, and analysis of melodies and lyrics.

Her Nova Scotia viewpoint allows her to consider puirt-a-beul in both its Scottish and diaspora contexts, a perspective that is too often absent in studies of Gaelic song.

Dr. Heather Sparling is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Canada Research Chair in Musical Traditions at Cape Breton University.